When I first started to understand the emotional theory, I felt ridiculous. However, I experienced the sadness of tears caused by the flu today. Maybe sometimes this is reasonable to some extent.
This theory was put forward by william james and Carl Langer.
External feedback theory shows that emotional stimuli trigger behavioral responses, and different sensory and motor feedback is sent to the brain to produce specific emotions.
Ps: James said: "As soon as we perceive the object that excites us, it will immediately cause changes in our bodies;" Before these changes appeared, our feelings about these changes were emotions. " "He also said ... will not immediately arouse emotions to stimulate our object's perceptual psychology; After perception, before emotion, there must be physical performance. Therefore, it makes more sense to say that we are sad because we cry; I am angry because I started to fight; Because of trembling, I am afraid; It is not that we cry when we are worried, fight when we are angry, and tremble when we are afraid. "So in James' view, crying, beating and shaking are the direct causes of emotions. Therefore, he concluded: "Emotion is just a feeling of physical state; Its reason is purely physiological. "
Langer believes that emotion is an instinctive reaction. He said: "Emotion, without physical attributes, would not exist." He also said, "the confusion of blood vessel movement, the change of blood vessel width and the change of blood volume of various organs are the real initial reasons for passion." Taking the role of drinking and drugs as an example, he explained that these factors cause people's emotional changes because alcohol and drugs affect the vascular system. He believes that the strengthening of the advantages of the autonomic nervous system and the result of vasodilation produce happy emotions; The activity of autonomic nervous system is weakened, blood vessels contract, and organ spasm leads to terror. He even thinks that throwing cold water can weaken anger and grumpy emotions, and potassium bromide can suppress terror and eliminate anxiety and unpleasant emotions. In a word, he thinks that emotion is the consciousness of physiological changes inside and outside the organism.